Pond Planting and Volunteers!

Jake setting his teeny newts free!

Children from Rainforest Class

Bats Class throwing oxygenators into the pond

Hello to all my 5 regular readers!

So the pond has been planted up with the below:

Key:

Butomus umbellatus x 20

Caltha palustris x 20

Iris pseudoacorus x 30

Myriophyllum spicatum x 25

Potomogeton crispa x 25

Veronica beccabunga x 20

Myosotis scirpiodes x 20

Aponogeton distachyos x 6

Callitriche palustris x 25

Ceratophyllum demersum x 25

These took some getting. We had a few false starts trying to get these as there were some miscommunications to do with invoicing for them.

Anyway eventually they were all paid for and delivered ready for our next big volunteer day on the 3rd of March. However the volunteers did not come! Oh NO I hear you say!!

I think it was too close to half term and people had just forgotten. But the plants were there and the water was cold so I called in my lovely husband to come and help me (and get in the water whilst I directed from the dry and warmer side)

The children came in to help us by throwing in/delicately planting the oxygenators into the pond (as you can see above).

Jake came into school with a tub of baby smooth newts that had been found and needed rehousing and he let them swim off into the Wilderness pond. He was brilliant at this and let them jump off his hands into the water.

It was a very successful day and much was achieved. Please put the next planting day, Wednesday March 23rd, in your diary!

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Decks away!

It was a wet, wet wet day at the wilderness today. The rain started and kept coming, as I went down to meet Jeff the carpenter and his uncle Merv. The balustrading oak turned up whilst I was there and we set out the sub structure of the deck on site.

We are onto stage 2 of the build and it is all looking great. The actual recycled deck boards also turned up today after a few phone calls and some shenanigans with the suppliers. So I guess I'll be in tomorrow to make sure it is all good.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Sunday 19/09/2010 - Is the pond full part 2!!

Is the pond full!! Yes it is. Woohoo! The pond is full of water but we have to finish buildi g the beach for the children to able to walk into the water so that they can pond dip. The first 10cm of water is where most of the fauna are found so hopefully once the pond is all finished and planted the children will be able to find newts and all sorts on their trips into the Wilderness.

www.redscapedesign.com

Contouring of the pond

Now before I go any further i have to apologise to Ken for making him a Dale instead of a Daly. He is, and has always been a Daly and as a new Numaira (as of this week in the Richmond and Twickenham Times) in the paper i know how annoying it can be to have your identity changed.

Also NSP Landscapes have been contracted to work on site but Ken has his own company which goes under the name of Healing Landscapes. So please come to www.redscapedesign.co.uk for me to design your garden and then we can get Ken at Healing Landscapes to build it.

Lovely. So, down to business, today was a big day, as they all seem to be. Kevin our Newts expert came and looked at the contouring of the pond and told us all that the shelves in the pond must not be too steep otherwise the newts spawn will fall down the slopes and never be seen again. So more a little fine tuning took place and an extra pair of hands were found on site in the form of Cameron. The pond liner also turned up this afternoon.

Jeff the Carpenter came down and we discussed at length if I had made the right choice in picking a new recycled decking product. We have had a few miscommunications with the suppliers and well frankly it was all getting a bit much. It is, I think all sorted now and we will have deck boards and carpenter on site at the same time next week.

And lastly I had to make a mad dash to Adrian Hall and Wickes to pick my favourite gravel (I know!?). I had one in mind and had been carrying round a sample from Bushy Park, which one of the gardeners there had let me have. Even the man who works in Adrian Hall looked at me in a funny way as I brought out my nappy sack full of genuine Bushy Park gravel to find a match.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Newts Moving Day

Kids and Newts

So today was a bit of a rush. Yesterday we had the idea that children from the school should be involved in the newts move and then we thought that maybe the local press would be interested.

So of course, this then had to be co-ordinated and somehow it worked!

all of the above came along at the same time. The kids, newts, toads and journalist from the Richmond and Twickenham Times all were together. The kids had a great time looking at the wildlife and we adults (thank you Lindsay for helping and holding and catching newts) remembered why we were involved in the hours and hours of work that it has taken to get even to this stage.

So the pond has been drained, the newts and toads have been moved to their temporary accomodation. Marking out should happen tomorrow with diggers on site Friday/Mon to contour the pond.

All in all a very successful if hectic day.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk